Same-business test under income tax relief: oilseed trading is distinct from oil manufacturing, so section 25(4) relief failed.

Relief under section 25(4) depended on whether the business succeeded to was the same in substance as the business earlier taxed. The Court treated the decisive question as whether trading in oilseeds could be equated with manufacturing oil and held that it could not: buying and selling oilseeds is a trading activity, while crushing oilseeds and producing oil is a distinct manufacturing business with different commercial character and operations. On the Tribunal's findings, the oil-milling activity was not merely an extension of the earlier grain and oilseed trade, so no error of law was shown. Relief under section 25(4) was therefore unavailable.

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Issues: Whether the assessee's oil-milling activity was the same business as its earlier trade in grains and oilseeds so as to entitle it to relief under section 25(4) of the Income-tax Act, 1922.

Analysis: Relief under section 25(4) depends on identity between the business charged to tax under the earlier Act and the business succeeded to. The Court treated the real question as whether dealing in oilseeds could be equated with manufacture of oil. It held that buying and selling oilseeds is a trading activity, whereas crushing oilseeds and manufacturing oil is a distinct manufacturing activity involving different commercial character, processes, and business operations. On the Tribunal's findings, the oil mills were not merely an extension of the old grain and oilseed business, and no error of law was shown in that finding.

Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to relief under section 25(4), because the oil-milling business was not the same business as the earlier business of dealing in grains and oilseeds.

Ratio Decidendi: For relief under section 25(4), the business succeeded to must be the same in substance as the business previously taxed; a trading business in oilseeds is not the same as a manufacturing business in oil.

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